Volume 25 Issue 3 - November 2019

STRINGS
ATTACHED
TERRY ROBBINS
There was never any doubt about
what would be the lead review once I
received HK Guitar Duo Plays Mozart,
the latest CD from two of Canada’s most
outstanding instrumentalists, guitarists
Drew Henderson and Michael Kolk
(Independent, hkguitarduo.com).
What I wasn’t expecting, though, even
from them, was the first of the three transcriptions
on the disc – the complete Symphony No.40 in G Minor
K550, the idea for the arrangement growing from some impromptu
improvising on the opening theme during a break in a 2008
recording session.
Transcribing the Duo No.1 in G Major for Violin and Viola K423
was, as Kolk readily admits, a much simpler process, and finding an
arrangement for two violins of the Piano Sonata No.8 in A Minor
K310 clearly assisted with their excellent transcription for two guitars.
Henderson plays a custom-built eight-string guitar in the Symphony
No.40 as well as in the middle Adagio movement of the Duo, the two
extra bass strings enabling an extended bass range that was particularly
essential for the symphony.
The playing throughout the CD is immaculate, the technical artistry
always matched by the musical sensitivity and intelligence. The Duo
and the Piano Sonata are not exactly insubstantial works, but the real
gem here is the Symphony No.40: “It’s incredible,” says the accompanying
promo blurb, “that four hands and 14 strings can cover so
much music that was written for an orchestra, but the HK Duo makes
it sound effortless.”
Indeed they do, but more significantly – and crucially – they also
make it sound both musically and artistically meaningful and an
immensely satisfying listening experience in all respects. It’s a quite
astonishing technical and musical accomplishment, completely
convincing through all four movements.
Engineered and edited by Drew Henderson to his usual impeccable
standards at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto, this is a
simply outstanding guitar CD.
By sheer coincidence, for the second month
in a row I received a guitar quintet CD that
opened with the Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet
Op.143 and closed with Luigi Boccherini’s
Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet in D
Major – the one with the famous Fandango
final movement. Last month it was Jason
Vieaux and the Escher Quartet, and this month it’s guitarist Sharon
Isbin and the Pacifica Quartet on Souvenirs of Spain & Italy, a CD
that features music by Italian-born composers influenced by Spanish
idioms (Çedille CDR 90000 190 cedillerecords.org).
The other works on the CD are Vivaldi’s popular Lute Concerto in D
Major RV93, heard here in Emilio Pujol’s arrangement for guitar and
string trio, and Joaquín Turina’s La oración del torero Op.34 in the
composer’s own string quartet edition of the original for lute quartet.
Perhaps the words “seldom-heard gem” are finally becoming
inappropriate for the gorgeous Castelnuovo-Tedesco quintet, which
would be welcome news. There may possibly be a bit more warmth
and tonal colour in Vieaux’s playing and a slightly less-forward guitar
balance, but both performances feature excellent work by the soloists
backed by beautiful quartet playing, and can be recommended
without reservation.
The two performances of the Boccherini quintet are also very
similar and equally impressive, the main difference being the addition
of castanets and tambourine for almost the entire Fandango on this
current disc, whereas on the Vieaux, the castanets (no tambourine)
only appear for a brief single spell in the middle of the movement.
Isbin adds her own Baroque ornamentation in a measured and
thoroughly enjoyable performance of the Vivaldi concerto; indeed, the
two middle works on this CD give it a decided edge over the
Vieaux disc.
David Starobin is the classical guitar soloist
on New Music with Guitar Vol.12, the latest
CD in the excellent ongoing series on the
Bridge label (9520 bridgerecords.com).
All five composers represented – Fred
Lerdahl, John Musto, William Bland, Edward
Green and David Leisner – were born
between 1943 and 1954, and the works are
predominantly mature pieces, only Green’s
Genesis: Variations for Solo Guitar, written
for Starobin in 1974 and recorded in 1975, predating 2010.
Starobin is joined by violinist Movses Pogossian in Lerdahl’s Three
Bagatelles (2017) and by pianist Yun Hao in Bland’s Sonata No.4
(2016), the latter’s Blues final movement ending effectively with
Starobin unwinding the lower guitar strings.
The outstanding baritone Patrick Mason joins the guitarist in two
brief but quite superb song cycles: Musto’s The Brief Light (2010)
on poems of James Laughlin and Leisner’s Three James Tate Songs
(2007). Leisner’s abilities as a virtuoso guitarist make for some
dazzling and imaginative settings in the latter.
Starobin and partners are all in top form in a highly entertaining
program.
Chiaroscuro, the latest CD from the
Schumann Quartet completes the trilogy
of concept albums that began with the two
CDs, Landscapes (2017) and Intermezzo
(2018) (Berlin Classics 0301213BC berlinclassics-music.com).
Described as “a picture-gallery of music”
the album uses Mozart’s settings of Five
Fugues from Bach’s The Well-Tempered
Clavier K405 as the promenade music and connecting path between
the various works: Mendelssohn’s Fugue in E-Flat Major Op.81 No.4;
Philip Glass’ brief String Quartet No.2 “company”; Shostakovich’s
Two Pieces for string quartet from 1931; Webern’s Six Bagatelles Op.9;
and Janáček’s String Quartet No.2 “Intimate Letters.” Gershwin’s
Lullaby adds a dream-like epilogue to the series.
The Schumann Quartet is performing the complete Chiaroscuro
program in their live recitals, and recommends that the CD be listened
to from start to finish without a break. It certainly works very well,
despite – or perhaps because of – the disparity between the musical
selections. Performances throughout are excellent, particularly the
heartfelt reading of the astonishingly raw and emotional
Janáček quartet.
The string music of the American
composer Juri Seo (born 1981) is featured
on the impressive CD Respiri, with the
Argus Quartet and cellist Joann Whang
(Innova 022 innova.mu).
The quite lovely title track for string
quartet is subtitled in memoriam Jonathan
Harvey, and pays tribute to the British
composer – a practising Buddhist – who
died in 2012, and whose signature musical gesture was an evocation of
breathing.
76 | November 2019 thewholenote.com